First blog, first chapter!

Chapter One – Emily (2014)

Anthony intently studied the medical imaging on his computer screen, tapping his stubby and chewed pencil against his teeth faster and faster.  I had been immersed in my own work, but the change in tempo distracted me and caused me to glance away from my spreadsheet to see what held his concentration.

“Brain?” I hazarded a guess as I observed the grainy ultrasound image on the screen.

“Close,” he responded dryly, “abdomen.”

“Female?” I countered with more confidence than I actually had.

“Uh, no Emily.  See those bits there and there?  Pretty sure those dangly bits are all male,” laughed Anthony.

“Well it’s a good thing you spent what? 12 years in medical school and I just do your grunt work,” I giggled, now vaguely able to visualise what he was looking at.

“You know medical school isn’t a thing here, right?” Anthony chided.  “I think you’ve been watching too much ‘Greys Anatomy’ again.

Our laughter was interrupted by a code grey announcement in the Emergency Department.  The receptionist announcing the code sounded panicked, and I giggled as Anthony rolled his eyes at me.

“Emily, I meant to tell you” said Anthony conspiratorially, “When I was down in ED before to check on Bill Luscombe, I did notice that one of your boys was in.”

I sat up a little straighter in my chair. “One of my boys?” I queried with an arched eyebrow.

“Hasn’t Facebook alerted you to the fire at the Industrial Estate this morning?  One of the fireys got some pretty nasty burns to his hands.  Perhaps you could go and offer him some assistance?  Review his medical imaging at the very least – you seem to have quite a skill for it?”

“Nice one Dr Doofas,” I replied archly, “but that fire was a few days back.  You really need to get out of this hospital a little bit more frequently.”

“Ouch, that burns…” mocked Anthony, clutching at his heart, “but I can’t believe you haven’t checked your Facebook today.  That same building has caught fire again.  They said that something as simple as the winds picking up can make the fire rekindle.  Weird, huh?”

“Fantastic” I sighed, exasperated, “I have to drive right by it to get home, so traffic is going to be a biatch, and unlike you Dr Workaholic, I do have a life to return home to, so I’d best leave now.  Might just take a detour via the Emergency Department and make sure there’s nothing to see…  Say hi to Kylie for me.”

“Yeah, say hi to your cats for me” muttered Anthony, swiftly dodging the pen I launched at him as I made my hasty exit.

As I had feared, the fire earlier in the day had caused traffic chaos, so I arrived home a lot later than normal.  My flatmate Mitchell had beaten me in.  I braced myself for the usual ball of energy that would come barrelling towards me, talking a mile a minute as soon as I unlocked the door.  To my surprise he seemed relaxed and handed me a cool and crisp glass of wine which I gulped at gratefully as soon as I entered the kitchen.  The fragrant aroma of garlic and seafood permeated our small terrace house and he was grooving around the kitchen to some Wham of all things as he tossed a salad.  I looked at him quizzically as I noticed the dinner table was set for three.  A quick glance around the living room confirmed that we must be expecting some company, as the only time Mitchell was motivated to clean up was if I exploded about his constant state of untidiness or if his mother was due for a visit.  His mother however was severely allergic to shellfish, so he was not cooking up a gourmet seafood risotto for her.

“Soooooo,” I purred, “Who are we pulling out all the stops for tonight Mitch?”

“Well that I can’t divulge yet darling heart, it’s a special surprise just for you”.  Mitchell’s hazel eyes danced cheekily above his fine cheekbones.

“Goody Mitchell, please tell me that you’ve finally found yourself a hot new prospect, someone who will wipe your dirty footprints from the coffee table and clean up after you and not mind when you sneak your red undies in with their white wash?”

Mitchell regarded me with one hand on his hip and refilled my wine glass with his spare hand. “You’ve obviously had a good day then lovely?  Or have you just had a detour through the land of the Passive Aggressive?  I’m sure you will find this guest intriguing.

“It had better be a fire fighter with the face of Ryan Gosling to get me enthused enough to get me changed out of these schleppy work clothes”.

“You always look beautiful to me” he replied with just enough of a tinge of sarcasm to make me sincerely doubt anything that was coming out of his mouth.  I glanced down at my black hospital issue button up work shirt with the hospital logo embroidered boldly on the pocket and plain black work pants and put my hand to my bun assembled of messy dark waves, from which I extracted two pens that I had absentmindedly stuck in there at some point during the day.  “Guess I’d better freshen up then, if you’ve got this under control?” I offered by way of apology.

“Off you go” waved Mitchell cheerily, quickly forgiving my crankiness.  “Go and sexy yourself up”.

“Sexy?” I asked with a roll of my eyes “I just want to get into my PJs and curl up on the couch with a cup of tea.”

 *****

The water running against my face and body had me feeling better instantly.  I let the hot steaming water run over me for a good while, but had kept my hair pulled back away from the stream of the water, aware that my chances of blow drying it to a respectable state before our mystery guest arrived were fairly slim.  Reluctantly I turned off the water and reached out for one of the fluffy pale blue bath sheets arranged artfully on the silver feather shaped hook next to the shower.  I wrapped the towel firmly around myself as I heard the front door open and Mitchell greet our guest in the hallway.  Feeling a little foolish, I crept on tippy toe towards my closed bedroom door, clutching the towel to my chest and tried to peer through the crack in the double door into the hallway to see if I could make out who this mystery person was.  I was hoping Mitchell hadn’t bumped into another one of my old girlfriends from high school.  He had an annoying habit of trying to date anyone with a pulse recently, and didn’t really understand my lack of enthusiasm to reconnect with girls (women?) whom I’d never had anything in common with in the first place.  But then he’d said to sexy up, and he wouldn’t get me to waste my good perfume on some random from school.  The voices coming from the hallway sounded masculine.  Mitchell’s distinctive baritone was unmistakable, but there was another male voice there.  Oddly familiar.  Too familiar.  I took in a very sharp intake of breath and in a panic, clumsily stumbled into the bedroom door, making it crash open.  Desperately clutching on to the towel to keep myself covered, I careened inelegantly out into the hallway and bumped clean into our no longer mystery visitor who turned around with a very alarmed look in his wide set chocolate brown eyes. 

Nix that.

Melted chocolate brown eyes that locked in on mine and made my stomach lurch and my face flame in an instantly recognisable way.

“Hey Em, graceful as usual.  You always knew how to make an entrance”.

 

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story.  You never quite know where they’ll take you.”
– Beatrix Potter